preliminary remarks 33
Mediterranean and in the Black Sea, this Westward expansion from the
Far east encountered a similar but opposite movement.107
the crusades were an expression of a reinvigorated european drive for
expansion after several centuries of relative passivity since Late antiq-
uity. though it began with largely (but by no means unmixed) religious
impulses among those who “took the cross,” in the early thirteenth cen-
tury, other motives accreted onto the crusading movement, unmistakably
secular: when in 1204 the Fourth crusade veered away from its proclaimed
target, the holy Sepulchre, toward constantinople, where the Western
knights deposed the Byzantine emperor and founded their own Latin
empire, this was at the instigation of Venice, which thus furthered the
interests of its merchants in the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
the other great Italian commercial republic, Genoa, also sought to exploit
the crusading wars for its own purposes, but won its preeminence in the
Levantine trade mostly by its own efforts.
there were thus two distinct waves of expansion, from the east and
from the West, and in between was a major barrier made up of two dis-
tinct parts: the Muslim blockade in the near and Middle east, and the
Byzantine obstacle between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
these two sides of the barrier already came under pressure in the elev-
enth century, and held up to varying extents. early in the century the Byz-
antine emperors had already been forced to grant commercial privileges
to the Italian merchants, creating a breach which was never closed until
the end of the empire in 1453. In the best case, rulers of the Bosphorus and
the Dardanelles who wished to remain on the throne in constantinople
had to allow the Venetians and Genoese the freedom of the Black Sea,
along with complete exemption from customs duties. the imbalance of
power became even more obvious in 1204, when the crusaders obeyed
the doge of Venice’s instructions and installed a Latin power at constan-
tinople, in the heart of the Byzantine world, which lasted until 1261. In
that year the usurpers were expelled and the Byzantine empire restored
under Michael VIII palaiologos, but this fragile restoration could only be
kept on its feet with the protection furnished by Genoese galleys. their
services were rewarded on the same terms: freedom to sail in the Black
Sea, and customs exemption.108
107 ciocîltan, “Kreuzzüge.”
108 cf. papacostea, ciocîltan, Marea Neagră, pp. 23–42 (chapter ‘Sfârşitul monopolului
bizantin la Strâmtori şi dominaţia latinilor la constantinopol, 1204–1261ʼ) and pp. 111–134